The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-01-30

proved the rightfulness OF the prlncl-
pIes thew entertained, it leaves IN
touched the point for which we are
contending, that passive obedience has
been denounced by whole sections of
the country. If these precedents are
not considered to be cogent, we may find
one in the popular reception of the bred
Scott decision, that cannot be ignored
In this case, the Supreme Court, almost
unanimously, rendered decision con-
| corning the status of the negro.
This decision gave deep offense to the
North, and we are informed by every
authority, was openly disregarded by
government and people. We quoted re-
Gently from the first inaugural of Lin
coin. words which indicated the diIect
hostility of himself and party to the de-
cision. Nor was this the only decision
on the question. The same court,
twenty years earlier, in the case of
Prigg, decided that the view that slaves
are property was fundamental article
of the Constitution, without which the
Union could not have been formed.
Despite this court to the contrary, in
repeated decisions, the North persist
entity disregarded every law that tended
to perpetuate slavery or to return slaves
to their owners The Fugitive Slave
Law of 1850, providing for the return to
their masters of negroes escaping into
the Northern States, met with the most
determined opposition, wherever its
provi ions were put in practice. William
Lloyd Garrison and his followers
declared that right was higher
than law; where State courts refused to
protect an alleged fugitive he was, if
possible, rescued from the hands of the
officers. We are informed that null
titude of the most thoughtful and most
worthy men of every northern commu-
nifty were ready to assemble to resent
the outrage offered to the north through
the fugitive.
In Boston, attempts were made to
rescue Anthony Burns, the slave, and
the military was called upon to inter
fere; and when the luckless fugitive was
to the wharf, flags, draped in
and at half mast, were hung
out. And these measures appeal to the
judgment of the people of the United |
States to-day.
Congress completely under the infu-
ence of Calhoun and the slave States,
was not worthy the respect of free
people; what would becoG of the
what was the Union worth,
it was asked. if shareholders shall ma
nipulate legislation for their own bene-
it? 1t was VIM. II. Seward who said
there is "a higher law than the Consti-
tuition"
In Rhode Island, under its old char
.er, twenty-three thousand inhabitants
had seventy members in the legisIa-
ure, while sixty thousand had only
hirty-four. Repeated and Intellectual
appeals had been made to the legisla-
ure for correction of this abuse, after
which the people took it into their own
lands to reform the government. Open
esistance and an appeal to arms re-
ulted, and posterity and their own day
argely justified them in bringing about
y force, what did not seem practicable
q any other way.
The alien and sedition laws of 1898,
estrictive of free press, were openly
isregarded by an outraged people.
The sentiment which has developed
} much force in Dakota that that Ter
tory IS being deprived of the substan- :
al right of Statehood by the evil mach
lations of politicians, bids fair to
evelop into more positive resistance
efore long.
We see how widespread among the
merican people is and has been the
ntiment that conscience is to be used
the criticism and reception of law, as
every other matter. q
1919 o. ~.